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Westminster Group Foundation help to provide football shirts to Sierra Leone

The Westminster Group Foundation have recently supported Oxford United in their donation of football shirts to Sierra Leone.

Oxford United football shirts have been donated to communities in Sierra Leone both by Oxford United themselves, and by global children’s charity, Enable the Children.

The Westminster Foundation aided the cause by shipping the football shirts to communities in Lungi, Sierra Leone, where Westminster have been present through our management of the security systems at Freetown International Airport since 2012. We will continue to provide support to the area in whatever ways we can during this pandemic, and beyond.

 

Westminster Group Foundation are proud to support the Roll Out the Barrel Trust to donate visors to Sierra Leone

The Westminster Group Foundation are proud to support the Roll Out the Barrel Trust with their donation of 1,000 safety face visors to Sierra Leone.

The Roll Out the Barrel Trust are a British charity who aim to prevent women, children and elderly people across the world having to carry water by hand, on their backs or on their heads, by providing them with Rotary Water Barrels. Since the COVID-19 crisis, the charity have diversified and have been supplying first world countries with PPE.

The Westminster Group Foundation have supported the ROTB Trust with their donation of 1,000 safety visors to Sierra Leone. The Westminster Group PLC are aiding the trust with air freighting the visors to Freetown International Airport, where they will be distributed to organisations and communities in Lungi and the surrounding area.

Westminster have had a presence in Lungi since 2012, through our management of the security systems at Freetown International Airport and we will be continuing to support the area in whatever ways we can during this pandemic.

Westminster Group Foundation proudly support Sierra Leone’s Calvary Primary School

The Westminster Group Foundation are proud to be in partnership with AlansAfrica to support Sierra Leone’s Calvary Primary School.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, many parents have been unable to pay their children’s fees. Because of this, staff and teachers at the school have not been able to receive a salary for the past three months.

The staff at the Calvary School sent an email to Alan’s Africa thanking them and their donor partners for their ‘timely intervention’.

As well as this, in partnership with AlansAfrica, we have upgraded the submersible pump in the well at the School and Church community to provide a more efficient water system. This will make a remarkable difference to the community, especially to the school children.

Westminster will continue to provide support to Lungi and the surrounding area, as we have done for the last 8 years.

Proudly supporting the charity work of Dogs for Good

The Westminster Group Foundation is proud to support the work of Banbury based charity Dogs for Good.

The charity makes life-changing differences for people with disabilities through the power of expertly trained dogs supporting people with autism, physical disabilities, learning disabilities and dementia, empowering them to live more independent lives. Top priority during the Covid-19 pandemic is the health, safety and wellbeing of their staff, volunteers, clients and dogs including practical tips to help your dog cope with the many changes, whether it be a pet dog or an assistance dog. The charity is constantly reviewing safety protocols to protect everyone connected with the charity and came to Westminster Group for essential advice and support.

We are pleased to support the charity by offering practical advice to aid the return to work of some of the staff and the donation of personal protective equipment (PPE) including face shields, face masks and hand held thermometers.

In response to the donation Dogs for Good stated:

‘We are very grateful to the Westminster Group Foundation for the donated items enabling us to re-start our post-lockdown operations in a very steady and measured way.’

We will continue to work with them going forward and look forward to meeting some of the amazing dogs in the not too distant future.

Westminster Foundation Supporting Banbury Mosque

In line with the government easing of the Covid-19 lockdown and the re-opening of places of worship, Westminster has installed walk through fever detectors and hand sanitiser stations at the Banbury Mosque.

The fever detector and hand sanitiser stations have been installed at the main entrances.

The mosque will have a phased opening, will be limiting the number of visitors to allow social distancing.

The mosque still awaits further guidance and clarity from the government for places of worship to re-open to the public.

The equipment will provide a sense of comfort to the Mosque and Community Fridge that Covid-19 preventive measures are in place to protect all those who attend.

The Banbury Mosque’s work with the Community Fridge project providing essential food items for those in need is something really special, especially during this difficult time. Their outreach into the local community is inspiring.

Volunteers with the Banbury Mosque and the community fridge have delivered more than 1,500 isolation food packs to vulnerable people in the community during the coronavirus pandemic.

Organisers on pack deliveries for people in self-isolation who are vulnerable and or over the age of 65.

A spokesperson for the mosque posted the following message on its Facebook page: “These systems will assist with the detection of those with a high temperature therefore protecting the health and wellbeing of our Masjid (Mosque) users.”

The Banbury Mosque is among several organisations commended with a letter of gratitude from the Oxfordshire representative of the Queen’s Office.

 

Westminster Foundation supports the Sierra Leone Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Westminster Foundation recently made a donation to the Sierra Leone Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary to assist with education support programmes in schools.

Sierra Leone’s chimpanzee population is rapidly declining and facing a serious risk of extinction, over the past 24 years the chimpanzee population has drastically reduced by more than 80% as a result of poaching (despite this being illegal), loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation due to human activities.

The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary is working on many fronts to prevent the extinction, they do this by awareness education programmes in schools, producing and circulating posters with the chimpanzee’s new status as Sierra Leone’s national animal and that it is illegal to eat bushmeat

The Tacugama team target is to protect as much as possible the chimpanzee population in Sierra Leone and the rest of the biodiversity. But despite their efforts, baby orphan chimps keep arriving at the Sanctuary, unfortunately changes in attitude to the wildlife will not happen overnight.

 

 

 

 

Westminster Foundation Supporting Katharine House Hospice

The Westminster Group Foundation is a proud supporter of Katharine House Hospice based near Banbury in the UK and is continuing that support during these unprecedented times.

Katharine House Hospice provides specialist care service and have now expanded their facility to help support the NHS by providing staff and facilities during this COVID-19 crisis. The hospice has increased its 10 bedded in-patient unit to a maximum total of 26 beds to support the UK national coronavirus response and need in the community.

To support the hospice in this work the Westminster Group Foundation has donated personal protective equipment (PPE) including face shields, face masks and hand held thermometers.

Chapel Repurposed

Westminster Foundation supporting Lungi Community

The Westminster Group Foundation has recently provided a large quantity of stable commodities such as rice, sugar and water to the poor and disabled community in the Lungi area of Sierra Leone. The advent of the Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the temporary lock-down of Freetown International Airport and local businesses which has subsequently caused the community to be suffering financially.

Delivery to a Lungi location

The Westminster Group CEO Peter Fowler commented “that the Westminster Group wished to extend their sincere thoughts and prayers to the people and government of Sierra Leone as they work together to overcome the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. Westminster has been operating in Sierra Leone for over eight years providing security at Freetown International Airport and local employment, it is fully committed to the country and its people and will continue to support the government its employees and local communities as we did during the Ebola crisis”.

Another Delivery

 

The local community elders thanked Westminster for the food and continued support that they are providing.

 

 

 

 

Westminster Group Foundation Quiz

On receiving 15 football tops generously provided from Oxford United Football Club to distribute to the local community in Lungi from Alan Wolstencroft. Neil Fowler decided that he wanted to do something different rather than just hand out the tops. He came up with the idea of creating a quiz paper for local schools to compete for the tops.

He set questions whereby the pupils would have to find out information on the different organisations that were involved in setting the quiz up, from Oxford United Football Club, Westminster Aviation Security Services Ltd (WASS) and The Standard Team, a Lungi based charitable organisation. Eleanor Samba a local WASS employee assisted in setting the Sierra Leone based questions. Neil also wanted to know more about Lungi so set the question “Name three places a visitor should see when in Lungi” there were no right or wrong answers to this particular question, but it was interesting to know what the pupils recommended seeing.

17 entries were received from 4 different schools. The winning entry came from Bullom Ahmadiyya, Muslim Junior secondary school from the Masoila area in Lungi.

During the prize giving the pupils informed Neil that they very much enjoyed completing the quiz and were delighted to have won the football Jerseys. The Teacher who facilitated the quiz for the school said that the jerseys would be worn by the pupils when competing in inter school sports events.

Neil Fowler is an WASS Aviation Security Manager at Lungi International Airport.

Liverpool School gets Government recognition

Government recognition was approved at the start of the academic year in September and has just been confirmed.

The Ministry of Education was so impressed by the infrastructural development at both the Liverpool Junior & Secondary schools, which has taken place in the last few years, hence the recognition.

The majority of the teachers are expected to be paid by the ministry, with effect from January 2020 but there are five junior school & six senior school who are left outside the scheme as there are not adequate funds to pay all staff in the country. The school will also receive items such as exercise books and core subject textbooks.

This is a GREAT step forward for the community and has justified all the investment at the school. Since 2013, when Alan Wolstencroft first visited the School and started the funding of the building & equipping of:

  • 10 classrooms all with water harvesting
  • 2 toilet blocks including water harvesting and hand wash stations at each of the blocks
  • an office/staff room/store
  • installation of a hand pump and improvements to the water well
  • a library & laboratory for the Secondary school complete with water harvesting system
  • a Junior school library room complete with water harvesting system
  • installation of mains electricity to 9 rooms
  • a security wall to form a school compound

In addition we have funded:

  • over 1,400 textbooks to both libraries
  • “Sunny Girl” project – supplying sanitary pads enabling 300 girls better access to education
  • several refurbishment programmes

Mr. Solomon the Headteacher said “Mr Alan, your commitment in supporting Liverpool schools has made a significant change and progress in the lives of the children in our community and we will remain ever grateful to you and all your donors for Making A Real Difference”.